Circumstances

The TED talk “The danger of a single story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was presented at an official TEDGlobal conference in July 2009. TED conferences are events where speakers from various social backgrounds are invited to speak about many scientific, cultural, political, and academic topics. TEDGlobal are annual conferences with a more international focus.

In July 2009, the TEDGlobal conference was held in Oxford, United Kingdom, therefore taking place in a Western country with a predominantly Western audience. The title of that year’s conference was “The Substance of Things Not Seen”, inviting both speakers and audience to think about the things that are not yet discovered or the unseen forces that shape the future and make things function. The conference featured more than 40 speakers presenting over the course of four days.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie spoke at the conference on a day when speakers covered topics such as radical development, contemporary social issues suc...